The two most well known candidates for NC Senate 41 issued dueling press releases Tuesday regarding their transportation priorities - one of the hot topics in the district.
Both mentioned widening I-77 as their top priority, but that's where the similarities ended.
Former NC GOP Chairman John Aneralla clearly stated his opposition to the Red Line Regional Rail project in his statement while Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte conspicuously failed to mention the most discussed (and most expensive) project in his notice to the press.
I say the omission is conspicuous because Mayor Tarte has been a staunch defender of the Red Line at recent meetings as the project has come under fire. As can be seen, in this article from the Lake Norman Citizen mayor Tarte stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the project's consultant, Mark Briggs, to brush off Norfolk Southern's concerns at the LKN Chamber's Focus Friday meeting in January. I attended that session, and the article doesn't really do justice to the subsequent exchange between Mayor Tarte and Commissioner David Gilroy. At one point Mayor Tarte asked with noticeable frustration if there was anything that would entice Mr Gilroy into supporting the project.
At the February 8th presentation by passenger rail critic Randall O'Toole, Mayor Tarte again stood up to defend the project by kicking off the rebuttal to the guest speaker. He can also be seen here in this news report from the session downplaying the significance of Iredell County's preliminary vote against the project.
Now, we're to believe that the Red Line doesn't even make Mayor Tarte's list of transportation priorities? Really???
As I said in an earlier post about picking a candidate in a primary, consistency in a candidate is the most important thing.
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